Given at Johannesburg Central BGM, 9 May 2010
Let’s talk about these things… ‘No Woman, No Revolution’
I greet you all my comrades
And protocol observed
Comrades I have been tasked by the BEC to lead the discussion of No woman, No Revolution, and I am doing it on the day when all of us are conscious that today 09, 2010 May, it’s a Mother’s day celebration.
My task is not to tell you my comrades how one should think but make it possible for us all to debate this issue before us today. Therefore with this introduction, it will only serve to keep the pot boiling as we debate:
Talk about these things (Asikhulume)…..”No woman, No Revolution”
As the revolutionary Communist the question that need to be honestly answered without one being biased is that, how Communist should celebrate women’s day?... should as Communist locate women’s day within a class contest contradictions or we should look at it within NDR and the 50/50% gender parity that the leader of the alliance ANC has implemented? Can us today as we go forward be in a position to say that 50/50 policy gender parity is working or at least, it is taking us a step forward, because a little movement forward is always better than no movement at all.
As a free student of the Communist and society I see this (women’s question) as a class struggle that is deepening and sharpening the contradiction on progression on women and the struggle confronting women in this epoch.
The women’s subject is very challenging as it challenges holistic view and understanding of women struggle as the women’s world is divided, just as is the world of men, into two camps; the interests and aspirations of one group of women bring it close to the bourgeois class, while the other group has close connections with the proletariat, and its claims for liberation encompass a full solution to the woman question (see The Social basis of the Woman Question, Alexandra Kollontai, 1909).
It is therefore paramount to have active women and we should protect our women with all what we have as we want woman workers to achieve equality with men not only in law, but in life as well…therefore, elect more women workers, both Communist and non-Party, to the Soviet. If she is only an honest woman worker who is capable of managing work sensibly and conscientiously, it makes no difference if she is not a member of the Party, elect her to…Soviets (see To the Working Women, V I Lenin, 1920. I expect that as we come to grips with a women question both women and men will realise that proletarian women have a different attitude. They do not see men as the enemy and the oppressor; on the contrary, they think of men as their comrades, who shares with them the drudgery of the daily round and fight with them for a better future. The women and her male comrade are enslaved by the same social conditions; the same hated chains of capitalism oppress their will and deprive them of the joys and charms of life (see The Social basis of the Woman Question, Alexandra Kollontai, 1909).
It is therefore important that we must not loose sight of the bigger struggle before us (of No woman, No Revolution) and be diverted to discuss politics of individuals of which as Communists we are lucky that we comprehend things based on concrete analysis for concrete situations, as in words, bourgeois democracy promises equality and liberty. In fact, not a single bourgeois republic, not even the most advanced once, has given the feminine half of the human race either full legal equality with men or freedom from the guardianship and oppression of men.[i] Therefore the Women and Child Ministry which we have at this period will never deliver socialism or set free women; it is us, with organs of popular power (Soviets) that we must show commitment.
As a free society grappling with equality of women as we understand that ‘a free development of each is a condition for a free development of all’, and here we are not, of course, speaking of making women the equal of men as far as productivity of labour, the quantity of labour, the length of the working day, labour conditions, etc.., are concerned; we mean that the woman should not, unlike the man, be oppressed because of her position in the family. You all know that even when women have full rights, they still remain factually downtrodden because all housework is left to them. In most cases housework is the most unproductive, the most barbarous and the most arduous work a woman can do. It is exceptionally petty and does not include anything that would in any way promote the development of the woman (The Tasks of the working women’s movement in the Soviet Republic, V I Lenin, 1919. Now as a free society, is it our task to revive the women’s body to fight their struggle as they see fit with all contradictions or get another body all together of the working women to advance the struggle?
In a free society and that of the mind can we impose on women as to how should they organise themselves, as free willing if they are not ready or conscious of the looming challenges before them of equality first? As the task of communists is to educate, organize and mobilize. Are we doing enough?
As the 3rd Congress of the Communist international seems to think, can we prescribe what women organization should do or should not do? The III Congress of the Communist International therefore recognizes that a special apparatus for conduction work among women is necessary. This apparatus must consist of departments or commissions for among women, attached to every party committee at all levels, from the CC of the Party right down to the urban, district or local party committee. This decision is binding to on all Parties in the Communist International (see Method and forms of work among Communist party women, Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921). The contradictions intensify as the FEDSAW Founding conference, 1954 said that a Single Society: we women do not form a society separate from the men. There is only one society, and it is made up of both women and men. As women we share the problems and anxiety of our men, and join hands with them to remove social evils and obstacles to progress (see Soviet Power and the Status of Women, V I Lenin, 1919). And we hope as we continue to agree to disagree how our relationship with women should be on this revolutionary path and that of getting Socialism in our life time and ultimately Communism as the last stage on this transitionary milieu.
“An Appeal: We women appeal to all progressive organizations, to members of the great National Liberatory movements to the trade unions and working class organizations, to the churches, educational and welfare organizations, to all progressive men and women who have interests of the people at heart, to join with us in this great and noble endeavour.” [Women’s Charter, adopted at the Founding Conference of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) JHB, 17 April 1954]
The proletariat cannot achieve complete freedom, unless it achieves complete freedom for women [To the working women, VI Lenin, 1920]
Socialism is the best
Co-Chair Communist University, JHB
Deputy Chair, SACP, JHB Central Branch
Cde Sibusiso Mchunu
(BGM Presentation 09, 2010 May)
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